Charles Amirkhanian introduces the amazing music of Trenton-born George Antheil (1900-1959). Antheil (pronounced "ANT-hile") was the first avant-garde American composer to be recognized in Europe and composed the Ballet Mécanique in the mid-Twenties for multiple player pianos and percussion. His life was documented in his 1945 autobiography Bad Boy of Music, still in print in English and German.
This program was produced as an intermission feature for a live San Francisco Symphony "New and Unusual Music" series broadcast on November 7, 1980. Comments by the composer himself plus Antheil's theme music for Walter Cronkite's CBS TV series "The Twentieth Century" are included. (Antheil died prematurely at the age of 58 in NYC while working feverishly on the popular weekly series.)
Notes
All Other Minds programs available, with additional print and photo materials, at http://www.radiOM.org.